Advertisers will always turn to Facebook – despite all that privacy stuff

Facebook, despite its constant battle with users over privacy controls, has seen its advertisers more than quadruple since the start of 2009 as marketers aim to get their products before a growing global audience.

Growing you ask? As it turns out, Quit Facebook day on Monday failed to gain momentum as ComScore revealed the social networking site now boasts 519.1 million users worldwide.

The user growth presents a big enticement for advertisers.

Better news for Facebook is companies are boosting ad spending after a lull during the recession.

Facebook ran 176 billion display ads in the US alone in the first quarter, up from 70.7 billion a year earlier, according to ComScore. 

In a bid to reach consumers who spend long stretches on the internet, advertisers are using Facebook as a means of targeted the right consumer demographic.

Ads are showing up next to profile pages, based on a user’s information such as gender and birth date.

Facebook sells ads that are placed on the home pages of users, where the latest comments, pictures and links from their friends are posted.

Among the worldwide advertisers are Procter & Gamble, Toys ‘R’ Us, Adidas and Virgin. The social networking site (which has always struggled to make a profit and monetize since its public launch in 2006) is relying on ads to maintain sales growth and lay the groundwork for a possible initial public offering.

The site’s growth is a constant threat to rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft as it has last month emerged as the largest site for display ads, with a market share of 16%, rising from 11% in the fourth quarter.

Yahoo! has a 12% share, down from 13% in the previous period, Microsoft had 5.5%.

Facebook also became the most visited website in March, overtaking longtime leader Google for the first time, according to Experian Hitwise. 

Even as companies ramp up spending, privacy challenges threaten to curb advertiser interest if it leads to a slowdown in Facebook’s user growth.

Companies should keep a close eye on user growth numbers in coming months as users begin to hide some personal information used by advertisers to target them.